Lamberto Bava, the son of legendary Master of Horror Mario Bava, had worked as his father's directorial assistant all way back since Mario's 1965
Terrore nello Spazio and 1966 Operazione Paura, and in 1977 he co-directed Shock with his father, the last film Mario Bava directed.
Lamberto also assisted other genre directors as Dario Argento and Ruggero Deodato.
With Macabro in 1980 Lamberto Bava debuted as a director on his own and with La Casa con la Scala nel Buio in 1983 he confirmed that he was a
pretty impressive director all on his own. And, in the latter one he also shows his influence from Dario Argento's directorial style, and naturally also
from his father, not a surprise as Dario in his turn was influenced by the directorial style of Mario Bava.

The old 2003 US Anchor Bay DVD double edition

I watched these 2 Lamberto Bava films (on the above US DVD) for the first time in 2003 and now it was time for a re-watching and a possible
re-evaluation of them. 2003, aah yes, at that time you were pretty spoiled with the early DVD releases of Classic Gialli, the best of Argento, the
best of Lenzi, Fulci, Lado, Martino and of Mario Bava etc. and these mostly then from the Gialli golden era of the 1960's -1970's.
But if i remember correctly i did like these 2 Lamberto Bava films also back then.

And these two films were the best films Lamberto ever directed on his own, and that is my opinion as i know some prefer his horrors Demons
and Demons 2. I've watched 3 more gialli directed by Lamberto, 1986 Morirai a mezzanotte, 1987 Le foto di Gioia and 1992 Body Puzzle and they
are all entertaining but strictly B grade genre offerings (read about them on my Giallo pages). In the 1980's the genre was on it's way out.

Macabro - The Story:

Not really a giallo perhaps, but an atmospheric psycho-horror-thriller filmed in New Orleans about a woman who loses her lover in a car
accident, are put in a mental hospital and then one year later rents the second floor of an old villa with a blind instrument repairer living on the
bottom floor. The blind guy, Robert (Stanko Molnar, also in A Blade in the Dark in a small role as the gardener) can hear distinctly sexual
sounds coming from the upper floor as if Jane Baker (Bernice Stegers) has a lover there, but he starts to wonder what's going on as he haven't
heard anyone arrive or leave the villa.

Jane's shock after losing her lover Fred in the car accident was doubled when her youngest kid were found drowned in the bathtub, and little
does she know that he was murdered by Jane's young teenage daughter Lucy (Veronica Zinny) in an act of insanity and daughter-mother hate.
Lucy probably felt side-stepped from her mother's affections or maybe she's just crazy, anyway Lucy starts to visit her mother at Robert's
house and to snoop around looking for her mother's secret. The film builds up to an intense and fascinating climax, even though the ending
scene was a bit tacky.

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A really fucked up mother-daughter relation and Veronica Zinny (born 1967 and 13 years old here) delivers one of the best Evil Child roles
ever. Sadly obscure and forgotten but as worthy of praise as Giovanni Frezza (the blond freak kid seen in the intro of A Blade in the Dark and
in Fulci films) she's the child of Argentinian actress Victoria Zinny and sister of Karl Zinny (wheelschair bound guy in Le Foto di Gioia).
She only made this film. Bernice Stegers as Jane Baker and Stanko Molnar as Robert are very good too. Pupi Avati co-scripted Macabro.

This German Blu-ray presents the film in widescreen ratio 1.78:1 with an english audio DTS-HD 2.0 (or an italian audio with german subs),
region ALL. Extras: Italian trailer, english trailer, german intro and end credits, english intro and end credits, french and italian image gallery,
and an interview with Lamberto Bava in english with italian translation and german subtitles (11 minutes)